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#TomatoGate: How Twitter Got A Restaurant To Change Their Business Practices

The Story
It all began on Saturday, 5th May, when my wife, a friend and I decided to drop in at Burgs, a gourmet burger restaurant in Bandra. 


In a nutshell, they refused to remove the tomato slice from my burger, stating that it was against their company policy. 


Feeling rather angry, I wrote a blog post about my experience on Sunday, 6th May, and put it up here for all the world to see. I urge you to read that story before continuing to read this post.


How It Spread
I was so angry that I didn’t want to just vent through a blog post. I wanted to make sure that everybody who googled up Burgs saw my review of the place. I spent an hour posting my review to websites like MumbaiBoss, Zomato and Burrp, as well as foodie blogs like The Big Bhookad.


Around the same time, I picked up on Burgs’ Twitter account, and reached out to them as well. My wife, sitting next to me, started scrolling through @BurgsIndia – and was shocked to see that their attitude existed on their Twitter account as well. Here’s a selection of their tweets.

[View the story “#TomatoGate: @BurgsIndia On Twitter” on Storify]

That’s about when some folks on Twitter picked up on my story, and started tweeting back. Here’s how it unfolded.

[View the story “#TomatoGate: Part 1” on Storify]


A glance at their Twitter profiles will tell you that these guys are popular, influential on (and off) Twitter, and have possibly been rubbed the wrong way by Burgs. The reply from Burgs was the last straw.


Within the hour, most of Twitter had started chucking virtual tomatoes at Burgs. They flayed Burgs alive for not customising my burger and for their couldn’t-give-a-fuck attitude. And  also started cracking tomato jokes all around. The Tomato Tweeters included stand-up comics like Tanmay Bhat and Rohan Joshi, journos like Ashish Shakya, foodies like Adarsh Munjal, Sahil K and Aneesh Bhasin, fashionistas like Latha Sunadh, and the ones who’d started it all off – Nik, Rahul Chawra, Mithun K, Roopak Saluja, Roycin D’Souza, Ranjit, One Black Coffee, et al.

[View the story “#TomatoGate: Part 2” on Storify]

Soon enough, ‘tomato’ was trending on Trendsmap Mumbai. And if Satyameva Jayate hadn’t hogged the Trending Topics pane on Twitter, ‘tomato’ would’ve been up there for sure. It got better. Somebody went and created the official Twitter account of the tomato in the burger. Finally, Burgs India responded. Announced that tomatoes were now  optional. Put it up on their Twitter bio even.

But even then, the attitude persisted. And the Tomato Tweeple picked up on it.

[View the story “#TomatoGate: Part 3” on Storify]


Finally, around evening, the story died down. And Burgs could breathe a sigh of relief.


Why #TomatoGate Went Viral
Two reasons, in my opinion.


One: Who hasn’t been at the receiving end of poor service from restaurants (and other service businesses)? We hear stories from friends and acquaintances about their experiences every day. My story was no different – but it was completely relatable. It became all about sticking it to ‘the Man’.


Two: Burgs India shot themselves in the proverbial foot. They were rude to guys like Adarsh and Roycin. And too proud and insensitive on Twitter overall. Their reply to me was the icing on the cake. And they still haven’t apologised to me. Nobody trolls someone who’s made one mistake and shows that they want to rectify it. But if you’re going to persist in being a smartass…be prepared to have your ass handed to you.


Lessons learnt, I hope.



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11 thoughts on “#TomatoGate: How Twitter Got A Restaurant To Change Their Business Practices”

  4. Great work man. Only disappointing part is that I missed out on the fun on twitter, I too love throwing tomatoes at brands with horrible customer service and even worse social media management. Was offline during day time and came online late evening and saw the timeline having Tomato fest. Other tweeps forwarded your blog link, followed the # tag and figured the story. Yes, it's a good case study as to how NOT to handle your social media. Any idea who handles their social media? It's in-house or some douchebag agency handling it?

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  9. "The Tomato Chronicles" made for interesting reading… I just hope that there are no sequels "Tomato, Inc. " or "Tomato Tamasha" to follow.Not for us, mind: we would love 1, 2 or more sequels of the now-famous (or infamous, depending upon our point of view) Tomato Chronicles. They make for interesting reading, and a laugh… kind of like Rohit Shetty's Golmaal 1,2, and 3! Only in this case it will be Tomato Chronicles, Tomato Incorporated and Tomato Tamasha! (You can choose your own names; you are the creator of the seres after all!)Jokes apart, how can any brand be so myopic? In today's day and age? And especially if you are located in a place like Bandra????? Great Post! Keep it up: visit the place once more, and write some more if they screw up again!Loved reading it!Vishal reflectionsvvk.blogspot.com

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